Kevin Spacey returns
Actor Kevin Spacey has signed a contract to star in a new film, which will be his first job since his sexual harassment lawsuits began.
Spacey will play a voice-over role in 'Control', directed by Gene Fallaize. Filming has already begun in London and will end early next year.
In October, a jury in a New York court found Spacey not guilty in a sexual harassment case against his colleague Anthony Rapp. He won a $40 million civil trial in New York after a jury found that he did not molest former colleague Anthony Rapp and was not responsible for the battery.
Meanwhile, Spacey is set to stand trial in the UK next year on a total of 12 charges of sexual assault and misconduct. The alleged crimes took place between 2005 and 2013, the Crown Prosecution Service said this month. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and will appear in court on 6 June 2023.
Rapp made the allegations during a conversation with Buzzfeed. He said Spacey lifted him up and partially laid on him.
"I knew he was trying to contact me sexually," Rapp said. He was seeking $40 million in damages.
Spacey apologised to Rapp on the same day of the allegations. He also came out as gay, which drew the ire of the LGBTQ community. "If I had acted as he describes, I would have owed him my most sincere apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour," he wrote on his social media.
After the allegations against Spacey surfaced, streaming service Netflix ended its association with him, delaying his film Gore and firing him from the political drama House of Cards. He was also removed from Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World and the film was remade with Christopher Plummer.
The only project Spacey has appeared in since the allegations is Billionaire Boys Club in 2018. The film was completed before the charges were filed. However, Spacey is set to return to the big screen with upcoming projects such as The Man Who Painted God and Peter Five Eight.
Kevin Spacey was the star of the popular American series House of Cards for five seasons. In October 2017, a scandal erupted when Rapp accused Spacey of sexual harassment that allegedly took place some 30 years ago. The actor was subsequently accused of sexual harassment by several other men. Because of the scandal, he was suspended from filming the series House of Cards and other projects.